Sunday, September 21, 2008

Answer: There can be many reasons people are afraid to come out as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. It depends on the culture you were brought up in, your religion and the point of view of your family and friends. People coming out now, don’t necessarily realize the stigma associated with being gay as little as ten years ago. Forty years ago, people were thrown in jail for dancing with same-sex partners in gay and lesbian bars. It was only in 2003 that the Texas sodomy law was overturned, finally making sex between two same-sex consenting adults legal. In 33 states you can still be fired for being gay.

4 comments:

Wow, the HRC website is surprisingly unhelpful about coming out as a bisexual. It vaugely mentions that "misinformation about bisexuality is widespread" but doesn't talk about any specifics. Here's a great resource I found from PFLAG: http://www.pflag.org/fileadmin/user_upload/BisexualityResourcePacket.pdf

Fear of rejection or recriminations can keep many at least partly in the closet in some areas of their lives. We have come a long way, here's to coming all the way for gay rights!Thanks for the resource links!

The main reason I don't come out to most people - like acquaintances - is because I don't know them really. You never know who is a homophobe and who isn't. And then if that acquaintance isn't a homophobe, who knows, they could have a big mouth and tell the wrong person.